Book travel

The ancient Romans called the Solfatara the Forum Vulcani, and visited it with the same strange fascination as modern-day tourists. From an eerie lunar landscape, hissing wisps of sulphurous steam rise up; here and there are broad mud bubbles. According to locals, breathing deeply of the sulphur fumes does wonders for sinus and lung problems. On the north-eastern side of the crater, entrances to a sudatorium (built in the 19th century and now bricked up) form weird, intolerably hot saunas.